Air India technician sucked into jet engine at Mumbai airport

An Air India technician died after being sucked into the jet engine at the Mumbai airport on Wednesday.

The incident took place while the co-pilot of Mumbai-Hyderabad flight AI 619 mistook a signal for starting the engine in which victim Ravi Subramanian, got sucked into it at bay 28 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji domestic airport around 8.40pm.

“An Air India technician Ravi Subramanian died in a mishap during pushback of flight AI 619; the incident is being investigated,” Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani said. “We are deeply regretting the tragic incident at Mumbai airport”.

“The body is still stuck in the engine, efforts are going on to retrieve it,” an airport official said.

An Air India source said a probe has been ordered into the incident. “At the moment, we are absolutely clueless on how this person was near the aircraft. Only an inquiry can establish whose negligence it was and whether the engine should have been switched on at that time,” the official said.

Officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation too, were investigating the incident, an airport source said.
A similar incident had occurred in the late 1990s in Chennai when a bird scarer was sucked into the engine after he ran towards the plane, while it was preparing for flying.